Image forming apparatus

ABSTRACT

A printing apparatus and an image forming apparatus are provided. The printing apparatus includes a printing unit to form an image on a printing medium, a scanning unit pivotally coupled to the printing unit, and a cover unit pivotally coupled to the scanning unit and having a pressing protrusion. The printing apparatus includes a first member rotatably mounted to the scanning unit to latch the scanning unit to the printing unit when the cover unit is in an open state with respect to the scanning unit, and a second member mounted to the scanning unit to rotate the first member to unlatch the scanning unit from the printing unit when pressed by the pressing protrusion of the cover unit moving from the open state to a closed state with respect to the scanning unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation application of application U.S. Ser. No.12/109,626 filed in the United States on Apr. 25, 2008, and is relatedto and claims the benefit and the priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) ofKorean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0058953, filed on Jun. 15, 2007 inthe Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present general inventive concept relates to an image formingapparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus havingan automatic document feeding unit so as to successively read documents.

2. Description of the Related Art

An image forming apparatus is an apparatus that prints an image on aprinting medium, e.g., paper, according to an input image signal. Animage forming apparatus is classified as a printer, a copying machine, amulti-function printer which has multiple functions of printing, copyingand scanning, and the like.

A conventional image forming apparatus includes an image reading unit toread image information recorded on a document, an image forming unitmounted under the image reading unit to form an image on a printingmedium, e.g., paper, in response to image information read by the imagereading unit or image information transferred from an externalapparatus, e.g., a computer, and an automatic document feeding unitmounted above the image reading unit to enable the image reading unit tosuccessively read documents.

The image reading unit is pivotally coupled to an upper portion of theimage forming unit to enable a user to perform maintenance work oninternal devices of the image forming unit. Accordingly, the imagereading unit can be rotated to expose a top of the image forming unit asneeded. The automatic document feeding unit is pivotally coupled to anupper portion of the image reading unit to enable the image reading unitto read a pile of documents or thick documents. Accordingly, theautomatic document feeding unit can be rotated to expose a top of theimage reading unit as needed.

However, in the above arrangement such that the image reading unit ispivotally coupled to the upper portion of the image forming unit and theautomatic document feeding unit is pivotally coupled to the upperportion of the image reading unit, when exposing the top of the imageforming unit by rotating the image reading unit to perform maintenancework on internal devices of the image forming unit, the automaticdocument feeding unit mounted above the image reading unit mayunintentionally rotate by its own weight and collide with anotherobject, for example, a wall of a building, against which the imageforming apparatus is installed, thereby being damaged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present general inventive concept provides an image formingapparatus that is capable of preventing a top of an image forming unitand a top of an image reading unit from being simultaneously exposed.

Additional aspects and/or utilities of the present general inventiveconcept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and,in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned bypractice of the general inventive concept.

The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present generalinventive concept may be achieved by providing an image formingapparatus including an image forming unit to form an image on a printingmedium, an image reading unit pivotally coupled to an upper portion ofthe image forming unit to expose and shield a top of the image formingunit, an automatic document feeding unit pivotally coupled to an upperportion of the image reading unit to expose and shield a top of theimage reading unit, and a locking device to selectively expose any oneof the top of the image forming unit and the top of the image readingunit.

The locking device may include an up/down lever movably mounted on theimage reading unit, and a first hook member rotatably mounted on theimage reading unit, the first hook member rotating between a firstposition in which the first hook member is latched by the image formingunit and a second position in which the first hook member is releasedfrom the image forming unit by being pressed by the lever, where theautomatic document feeding unit may be provided with a pressingprotrusion to protrude downward to move the lever by pressing the lever.

The first hook member may include a force transmitting portion toreceive a force from a lower end of the lever to cause rotation of thefirst hook member, and a first latching portion latched by the imageforming unit depending on a rotational angle of the first hook member.

The locking device may include a first elastic member to move the leveraway from the first hook member, and a second elastic member to returnthe first hook member to the first position.

The lever may be provided with a mounting recess at a lower end thereofto supportingly receive an upper end of the first elastic member, andthe image reading unit may be provided with a supporting part disposedthereon to support a lower end of the second elastic member.

The mounting recess may have a lower portion opened sideward to permitthe lower end of the lever to pass by the supporting part and to movedownward.

The locking device may include a second hook member rotatably mounted inthe image reading unit. When the top of the image forming unit isexposed, the second hook member may be latched by contact with thepressing protrusion.

The second hook member may be pivotally coupled to the image readingunit at a lower end thereof and may have a second latching portion at anupper end thereof, which is bent sideward to be latched by contact withthe pressing protrusion, and the pressing protrusion may have a thirdlatching portion at a lower end thereof, which is bent sideward to belatched to the second latching portion.

The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present generalinventive concept may also be achieved by providing an image formingapparatus including an image forming unit to form an image on a printingmedium, an image reading unit pivotally coupled to an upper portion ofthe image forming unit to expose and shield a top of the image formingunit, an automatic document feeding unit pivotally coupled to an upperportion of the image reading unit to expose and shield a top of theimage reading unit, an up/down lever movably mounted on the imagereading unit, and a locking device, where when the top of the imageforming unit is exposed, the locking device fixedly attaches theautomatic document feeding unit to the image reading unit, and when thetop of the image reading unit is exposed, the locking device fixedlyattaches the image reading unit to the image forming unit.

The locking device may include a first hook member rotatably mounted onthe image reading unit, the first hook member to rotate between a firstposition in which the first hook member is latched by the image formingunit and a second position in which the first hook member is releasedfrom the image forming unit by being rotated by contact with the lever,a pressing protrusion to protrude downward from the automatic documentfeeding unit to move the lever by pressing the lever,; and a second hookmember rotatably mounted on the image reading unit, the second hookmember being latched by contact of the pressing protrusion when the topof the image forming unit is exposed.

The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present generalinventive concept may also be achieved by providing an image formingapparatus, including an image forming unit, an image reading unitmovably disposed on the image forming unit, a document reading unitmovably disposed on the image reading unit, and a locking device toselectively couple the image reading unit to one of the image formingunit and the document reading unit.

The locking device may include first and second latching members thatare rotatably disposed on the image forming apparatus, and a slidingmember to selectively fixedly attach the first latching member to theimage forming unit and the second latching member to the automaticdocument reading unit.

When the first latching member is in a latched state the second latchingmember may be in an unlatched state.

When the first latching member is in an unlatched state the secondlatching member may be in a latched state.

The first and second latching members may be rotatably disposed on theimage reading unit.

When a top of the image forming unit is exposed to outside of the imageforming apparatus, the locking device fixedly attaches the image readingunit to the automatic document feeding unit.

When a top of the image reading unit is exposed to outside of the imageforming apparatus, the locking device fixedly attaches the image readingunit to the image forming unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and utilities of the exemplary embodiments ofthe present general inventive concept will become apparent and morereadily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments,taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an image forming apparatus inaccordance with the present general inventive concept;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a locking device of the imageforming apparatus of FIG. 1 in accordance with the present generalinventive concept;

FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating a state in which both a top of animage forming unit and a top of an image reading unit are shielded inthe image forming apparatus of FIG. 1 in accordance with the presentgeneral inventive concept;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a circular highlighted portion of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a side view illustrating a state in which the top of the imagereading unit is exposed in the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1 inaccordance with the present general inventive concept;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a circular highlighted portion of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a side view illustrating a state in which the top of the imageforming unit is exposed in the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1 inaccordance with the present general inventive concept; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of a circular highlighted portion of FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of thepresent general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to likeelements throughout. The embodiments are described below to explain thepresent general inventive concept by referring to the figures.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus 5 according to thepresent general inventive concept includes an image reading unit 10 toread an image recorded on a document, an image forming unit 20 to printan image on a printing medium, e.g., printing paper, in response toimage information read by the image reading unit 10 or image informationtransferred from an external apparatus, e.g., a computer, and anautomatic document feeding unit 30 to automatically feed documents sothat the image reading unit 10 can successively read the documents.

The image reading unit 10 is mounted above the image forming unit 20 forconvenience in use, and the automatic document feeding unit 30 ismounted above the image reading unit 10 to enable the image reading unit10 to successively read the documents. The image reading unit 10 ispivotally coupled to an upper portion of the image forming unit 20 atits rear end to enable a user to perform maintenance work on internaldevices of the image forming unit 20. Accordingly, the image readingunit 10 can be rotated upward to expose a top portion of the imageforming unit 20. The automatic document feeding unit 30 is pivotallycoupled to an upper portion of the image reading unit 10 at its rear endto enable the image reading unit 10 to read a pile of documents, orthick documents, manually fed by a user, since the documents cannot befed through the automatic document feeding unit 30. Accordingly, theautomatic document feeding unit 30 can be rotated upward to expose a topof the image reading unit 10.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 5 according to thepresent general inventive concept may further include a locking device40 to prevent the top of the image forming unit 20 and the top of theimage reading unit 10 from being simultaneously exposed by selectivelyexposing any one of the top of the image forming unit 20 and the top ofthe image reading unit 10. Both of the top of the image reading unit 10and the top of the image forming unit 20 may not be simultaneouslyexposed to the outside of the image forming apparatus 5. When the top ofthe image forming unit 20 is exposed, the locking device 40 fixedlyattaches the automatic document feeding unit 30 to the image readingunit 10. On the other hand, when the top of the image reading unit 10 isexposed, the locking device 40 fixedly attaches the image reading unit10 to the image forming unit 20. Accordingly, only any one of the top ofthe image forming unit 20 and the top of the image reading unit 10 isselectively exposed.

When the automatic document feeding unit 30 moves with respect to one ofthe image reading unit 10 and the image forming unit 20, the imagereading unit 10 and the image forming unit 20 are coupled to each otherso that the image reading unit 10 and the image forming unit 20 do notmove with respect to each other. When the image reading unit 10 moveswith respect to the image forming unit 20, the image reading unit 10 andthe automatic document feeding unit 30 are coupled to each other so thatthe image reading unit 10 and the automatic document feeding unit 30 donot move with respect to each other.

As illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, the locking device 40 includes a lever41 which is up/down movably mounted on the image reading unit 10, afirst hook member 42 rotatably mounted on the image reading unit 10, anda guide member 43 to guide the up/down movement of the lever 41. Thefirst hook member 42 rotates between a first position in which the firsthook member 42 is latched by the image forming unit 20 and a secondposition in which the first hook member 42 is released from the imageforming unit 20 by being pressed by the down-moving lever 41. The firsthook member 42 includes a force transmitting portion 42 a which receivesa pressing force from a lower end 47 of the lever 41 to cause a downwardrotation of the first hook member 42, and a first latching portion 42bwhich is latched by the image forming unit 20 depending on a rotationalangle of the first hook member 42.

The automatic document feeding unit 30 is provided with a pressingprotrusion 31 which protrudes downward. When the automatic documentfeeding unit 30 covers the top of the image reading unit 10, thepressing protrusion 31 presses downward on the lever 41 to move thelever 41 downward. The locking device 40 further includes a firstelastic member 45, which may be a spring, for example, and may bedisposed internally within the lever 41 in a mounting recess 41 a, and asecond elastic member 46, which may be a spring, for example, and may beattached to the force transmitting portion 42 a of the first hook member42. When the automatic document feeding unit 30 is rotated upward suchthat the top of the image reading unit 10 is exposed, the down pressingforce of the pressing protrusion 31 on the lever 41 is removed, and anelastic force of the first elastic member 45 causes the first elasticmember 45 to return the lever 41 upward. When the lever 41 is returnedupward by the elastic force of the first elastic member 45, an elasticforce of the second elastic member 46, which may be attached to theforce transmitting portion 42 a of the first hook member 42, causes thefirst hook member 42 to rotate upward to the first position, where thefirst hook member 42 is latched by the image forming unit 20 (referringto FIG. 6).

As described above, to install the first elastic member 45, the lever 41may be provided with an internal mounting recess 41 a to supportinglyreceive an upper end of the first elastic member 45, and a supportingpart 11 to support a lower end of the first elastic member 45 may beprotrudingly formed on a portion of the image reading unit 10. A lowerportion of the mounting recess 41 a may be opened sideward so that thesupporting part 11 can be inserted into the mounting recess 41 a.Accordingly, the lower end of the lever 41 can pass by the supportingpart 11 and press down the force transmitting portion 42 a of the firsthook member 42 mounted below the supporting part 11.

The locking device 40 may further include a second hook member 44rotatably mounted on a portion of the image reading unit 10. When theimage reading unit 10 is rotated upward and the top of the image formingunit 20 is exposed, the second hook member 44 rotates toward thepressing protrusion 31 to be latched by the pressing protrusion 31(referring to FIG. 8). The second hook member 44 may be pivotallycoupled to a portion of the image reading unit 10 at its lower end. Inorder for the second hook member 44 to be latched by the pressingprotrusion 31, the second hook member 44 has a second latching portion44 a at its upper end, which is bent sideward to be latched by thepressing protrusion 31. The pressing protrusion 31 has a third latchingportion 31 a disposed at its lower end, which is bent sideward toreceive and to be latched by the second latching portion 44 a of thesecond hook member 44.

Accordingly, while the top of the image reading unit 10 is unexposed andcovered with the automatic document feeding unit 30, the lever 41 iskept in a state of being compressed and is moved down by the pressingprotrusion 31, and the first hook member 42 is kept in a state of beingrotated and released from the image forming unit 20, so that the top ofthe image forming unit 20 can be exposed by rotating the image readingunit 10. When the top of the image reading unit 10 is exposed byrotating the automatic document feeding unit 30 upward as illustrated inFIG. 5, the lever 41 is returned upward by an elastic force of the firstelastic member 45 as illustrated in FIG. 6, the first hook member 42 isreturned to its original position by being rotated upward by the secondelastic member 46, and the first latching portion 42b of the first hookmember 42 is latched by the image forming unit 20, thereby fixedlyattaching the image reading unit 10 to the image forming unit 20. Asdescribed above, when the top of the image reading unit 10 is exposed,the locking device 40 according to the present general inventive conceptfixedly attaches the image reading unit 10 to the image forming unit 20.

If rotating the image reading unit 10 to expose the top of the imageforming unit 20 as illustrated in FIG. 7, the second hook member 44rotates on the lower end by its own weight as illustrated in FIG. 8, andthe second latching portion 44 a provided at the upper end of the secondhook member 44 is latched by the third latching portion 31 a of thepressing protrusion 31 introduced into the image reading unit 10,thereby fixedly attaching the automatic document feeding unit 30 to theimage reading unit 10 through the action of the pressing protrusion 31.As described above, when the top of the image forming unit 20 isexposed, the locking device 40 according to the present generalinventive concept fixedly attaches the automatic document feeding unit30 to the image reading unit 10.

As apparent from the above description, the image forming apparatusaccording to the present general inventive concept, can prevent both thetop of the image forming unit and the top of the image reading unit frombeing simultaneously exposed by the locking device, which is capable ofselectively exposing any one of the top of the image forming unit andthe top of the image reading unit. Accordingly, the automatic documentfeeding unit can be prevented from being damaged due to the simultaneousexposure of the top of the image forming unit and the top of the imagereading unit.

Although embodiments of the present general inventive concept have beenillustrated and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled inthe art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departingfrom the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, thescope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.

1. A printing apparatus comprising: a printing unit configured to forman image on a printing medium; a scanning unit pivotally coupled to theprinting unit; a cover unit pivotally coupled to the scanning unit, thecover unit having a pressing protrusion; a first member rotatablymounted to the scanning unit, the first member configured to latch thescanning unit to the printing unit when the cover unit is in an openstate with respect to the scanning unit; and a second member mounted tothe scanning unit and configured to move linearly in a down directionwith respect to the first member to rotate the first member to unlatchthe scanning unit from the printing unit when pressed by the pressingprotrusion of the cover unit moving from the open state to a closedstate with respect to the scanning unit.
 2. The printing apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein, the second member is configured to move linearly in anup direction with respect to the first member to disengage from thefirst member when the cover unit is moved from the closed state to theopen state, and the first member is biased to automatically rotate to alatched position when disengaged from the second member.
 3. The printingapparatus of claim 1, wherein, the second member is configured to movelinearly in an up direction to disengage from the first member when thecover unit is moved from the closed state to the open state, and thefirst member includes a hook part and a spring part to automaticallyrotate the hook part to a latched position when disengaged from thesecond member.
 4. The printing apparatus of claim 1, further comprisinga third member rotatably mounted to the scanning unit to latch thescanning unit to the cover unit when the scanning unit is in an openstate with respect to the printing unit.
 5. The printing apparatus ofclaim 4, wherein, the pressing protrusion includes a hook part, and thethird member includes a hook part to latch the hook part of the pressingprotrusion to latch the scanning unit to the cover unit.
 6. The printingapparatus of claim 5, wherein the hook part of the third member latchesthe hook part of the pressing protrusion to latch the scanning unit tothe cover unit based on a gravitational force exerted on the thirdmember when the scanning unit is moved from a closed state to an openstate with respect to the printing unit.
 7. The printing apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the first member includes: a force transmitting portionto receive a force from a lower end of the second member to causerotation of the first member, and a latching portion latched to theprinting unit depending on a rotational angle of the first member.
 8. Animage forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming unit which formsan image on a printing medium; an image reading unit, pivotally coupledto the image forming unit, and including a first hook member rotatablymounted to the image reading unit, and a lever member mounted to theimage reading unit and linearly movable in an up direction and a downdirection with respect to the first hook member; and a document feedingunit, pivotally coupled to the image reading unit, and including apressing protrusion operable to press the lever member in the downdirection to unlatch the image forming unit and the image reading unitfrom each other, and in the up direction to thereby latch the imageforming unit and the image reading unit to each other.
 9. (canceled) 10.The image forming apparatus of claim 8, the image reading unit includinga second hook member rotatably mounted to latch the image reading unitand the document feeding unit to each other.
 11. The image formingapparatus of claim 10, wherein, the pressing protrusion includes a hookpart, and the second hook member includes a hook part to latch the hookpart of the pressing protrusion to latch the image reading unit and thedocument feeding unit to each other.
 12. The image forming apparatus ofclaim 11, wherein the hook part of the second hook member latches thehook part of the pressing protrusion to latch the image reading unit andthe document feeding unit to each other based on a gravitational forceexerted on the second hook member when the image reading unit is movedfrom a closed state to an open state with respect to the image formingunit.
 13. The image forming apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first hookmember includes: a force transmitting portion to receive a force from alower end of the lever member to cause rotation of the first hookmember; and a latching portion latched to the image forming unitdepending on a rotational angle of the first hook member.
 14. An imageforming apparatus, comprising: an image forming unit which forms animage on a printing medium; an image reading unit pivotally coupled tothe image forming unit; a document feeding unit, pivotally coupled tothe image reading unit, the document feeding unit having a pressingprotrusion to move a sliding member by pressing the sliding member; anda locking device including: the sliding member mounted to the imagereading unit to move up and down linearly relative to the image readingunit; and a first latching member rotatably mounted to the image readingunit, the first latching member configured to latch the image formingunit, wherein the document feeding unit rotating from an open positionto a closed position with respect to the image reading unit causes thepressing protrusion to press the sliding member to rotate the firstlatching member so that the first latching member is unlatched from theimage forming unit and the image reading unit is separable from theimage forming unit.
 15. The image forming apparatus of claim 14, thelocking device including a second latching member rotatably mounted tothe image reading unit to latch the image reading unit to the documentfeeding unit when the image reading unit is separated from the imageforming unit.
 16. The image forming apparatus of claim 15, wherein, thepressing protrusion includes a hook part, and the second latching memberincludes a hook part to latch the hook part of the pressing protrusionto latch the image reading unit to the document feeding unit.
 17. Theimage forming apparatus of claim 16, wherein the hook part of the secondlatching member latches the hook part of the pressing protrusion tolatch the image reading unit to the document feeding unit based on agravitational force exerted on the second latching member when the imagereading unit is separated from the image forming unit.
 18. The imageforming apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first latching memberincludes: a force transmitting portion to receive a force from a lowerend of the sliding member to cause rotation of the first latchingmember, and a latching portion latched to the image forming unitdepending on a rotational angle of the first latching member.